Kemi Badenoch has secured a bounce in the polls as she puts the Tories on a war footing for a potential pre-Christmas election.

The Tories were up three points in the latest Opinium survey, after she used her party’s conference last week to announce plans to exempt family homes from inheritance tax.

But Labour are still well ahead in the poll, carried out between last Wednesday and Friday, which put Andy Burnham’s party on 29 per cent, while Reform was down two points on the previous week to 23 per cent, with the Tories on 20 per cent.

The Greens also saw their support fall two points to 9 per cent, while the Liberal Democrats remained unchanged on 9 per cent.

Mr Burnham has ruled out an early election, but there is growing speculation in Westminster, and among some nervous Labour MPs, that he could go to the country in a bid to capitalise on the ‘Burnham bounce’ Labour has experienced since he became PM.

Labour is now regularly beating Reform in the polls for the first time in a year.

Electoral Calculus estimates the latest poll might give Labour 336 MPs, the Tories 114 and Reform 105.

Mrs Badenoch told the Mail on Sunday the Tories must be ready for an election “at any point”.

The Tories have been preparing for a potential election since July.

The party is targeting 'Waitrose Woman', who shop in the high-end supermarket and are “aspirational – not necessarily a millionaire” and “wants to work hard, get on and pay less tax so she can have more money in her pocket”.

Mrs Badenoch said: “We know there's a battle of ideas coming in British politics and I've instructed the Conservative Party to be ready for an election at any point.

“When that election comes there will be a simple choice between Conservative plans to get Britain working again and a Labour party that keeps putting up taxes, refuses to cut welfare and won't fund our defence.”

James Crouch, head of policy and public affairs at Opinium, said: “Andy Burnham and Kemi Badenoch both delivered commanding speeches, secured positive headlines and boosted their parties' vote shares.

“Together, the two main parties now have their highest combined share in almost two years. The question is whether this is as good as it gets for the old guard, or the beginning of a genuine trend.”

Opinium asked 2,050 UK adults between 7 and 9 October.